MyeEMBA

MBA students working together with one or more classmates in order to complete an assignment is a norm in most MBA programs. Working together successfully often depends on how well the group shares information. This usually means sharing a document or file of some kind, such as an MS Word document, PowerPoint presentation, PDF file, picture, graphic, or a spreadsheet. While MBA students working together may be the norm for most MBA programs, providing students effective and efficient ways of sharing documents is not. The answer for most MBA programs is to let students find their own solution, which usually means using email and file attachments. Much better solutions are available, many of which are consumer-focused, user friendly, and free.

Four state of learning

Four stages of learning

"For the past year a group of MBA students at business schools worldwide, has been blogging about their experiences for the Financial Times. From arriving in a foreign land and knowing nobody, to working together in a team with complete strangers, who in time become close friends, the students have written candidly about what it means to study for an MBA. In MBA programmes generally women students tend to be in the minority, but as the blogs from our female students reveal although they may be fewer in number, nevertheless they are just as enthusiastic about their MBA journey. "

"I have been teaching college writing since 1992. The corrections I find myself making on student assignments fall into two general categories. The first concern problems of style - specifically, clarity and grace. So I mark the many places where my students commit wordiness, vagueness, awkwardness, banality, and so on. The other category is mistakes: usages that do not follow the accepted rules of standard English. From the beginning, it was clear to me that most student mistakes fall into a small number of categories - seven, to be precise. They have common qualities that speak to unfortunate cultural trends, which I'll discuss in a minute. But first, the seven deadly sins. (The examples in quotation marks are from actual student writing assignments.)"

"Late December brings thoughts of Santa and snowmen. And for many M.B.A. hopefuls, significant stress [Tuck] Tuck School of Business . Harvard Business School, University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and other top business schools in coming days will inform applicants of their first-round admissions decisions. A lucky few (roughly 14%-20% for Wharton and 12% for HBS, based on last year's numbers) will receive letters of acceptance, but others who are waitlisted or rejected must scramble to meet later deadlines at other schools or gear up to try again next year. "

"A few weeks ago, I wrote about avoiding social media failures. I briefly mentioned our company's "Failure Wall" and was surprised by the number of comments and questions I received about it. What's the purpose? How does it work? And what other kinds of things do you do in that crazy office of yours? The failure wall was part of our efforts to create a company culture where employees can take risks without fear of reprisal. As NPR's Here and Now reported earlier this year, we started by collecting inspirational quotes about failure."

Wikipedia stands as an undeniable success in online participation and collaboration. However, previous attempts at studying collaboration within Wikipedia have focused on simple metrics like rigor (i.e., the number of revisions in an article's revision history) and diversity (i.e., the number of authors that have contributed to a given article) or have made generalizations about collaboration within Wikipedia based upon the content validity of a few select articles. By looking more closely at metrics associated with each extant Wikipedia article (N=3,427,236) along with all revisions (N=225,226,370), this study attempts to understand what collaboration within Wikipedia actually looks like under the surface. Findings suggest that typical Wikipedia articles are not rigorous, in a collaborative sense, and do not reflect much diversity in the construction of content and macro-structural writing, leading to the conclusion that most articles in Wikipedia are not reflective of the collaborative efforts of the community but, rather, represent the work of relatively few contributors.

"GradHacker began as a bootcamp to introduce grad students to social media that would improve their lives. Most of our authors use a myriad of tech on a daily basis. All of us have Twitter, many are also on Google +, we own a diversity of smart phones, and our laptops are more an extension of our person than a tool. Technology is increasing important to academia, with online discussion and electronic publication becoming a frequent practice. Personally, I wouldn't be where I am without Twitter and Wordpress opening a number of important windows of opportunity to me. "

"Everyone knows that enthusiasm boosts performance and that enjoying work can be the beginning of a virtuous circle. But can you become more enthusiastic? How can I view my work more enthusiastically?"

"Many companies extol the value of work-life balance for their employees, but the reality for senior executives? There isn't any. Frequently, stressed and harried managers look up the organization hierarchy and assume that they'll have greater control of their time when they advance to the C-suite. What they don't understand is that modern-day telecommunications, the hair-trigger requirements of financial markets, and the pace of global organizations create 24 x 7 work lives for most executives. So, forget work-life balance and think personal organization and finding ways to relax."

"The other day, on a flight from Charleston to Atlanta, I was in the middle of grading papers when the man sitting next to me leaned over and mumbled, "Those aren't final student papers, are they?" He asked the question because the pages had comments and emendations and line edits all over them once I finished each one. I laughed and replied, "Yeah, but they're good students. They're bright, but they just don't take enough care with their prose.""

Would an MBA student write a cover letter like the one discussed in this article?

"Workplace mentors used to be older and higher up the ranks than their mentees. Not anymore. In an effort to school senior executives in technology, social media and the latest workplace trends, many businesses are pairing upper management with younger employees in a practice known as reverse mentoring. The trend is taking off at a range of companies, from tech to advertising. "

"The Web site RateMyProfessors evokes skepticism among faculty members. Some view the anonymous evaluation site as a haven for rants and odd remarks ("He will crush you like an academic ninja!"), or a place where students go to grade instructors based on easiness or attractiveness (a chili-pepper icon distinguishes professors that are "hot" over those that are "not"). But new research out of the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire suggests the popular service is a more useful barometer of instructor quality than you might think, at least in the aggregate. And the study, the latest of several indicating RateMyProfessors should not be dismissed, raises questions about how universities should deal with a site whose ratings have been factored into Forbes magazine's college rankings and apparently even into some universities' personnel evaluations."

"Companies are spending more this year on recruiting but are focusing their dollars on more high-tech methods than in the past, a new report suggests. Additionally, more companies are hiring their own full-time recruiters or temporary contract recruiters to cut down on the costs of outside recruiting agencies, the report from Bersin & Associates, a human resources consulting firm, found. "There are shifts in how companies are allocating their money," said Karen O'Leonard, an analyst and author of the Bersin study. "In the long-term, the shifts will save companies money.""

This article may be of interest to MBA students.

"IN LATE 1965, President Lyndon Johnson stood in the modest gymnasium of what had once been the tiny teaching college he attended in Texas and announced a programme to promote education. It was an initiative that exemplified the "Great Society" agenda of his administration: social advancement financed by a little hard cash, lots of leverage and potentially vast implicit government commitments. Those commitments are now coming due."

MBA programs and MBA students are likely to be affected when the bubble burst.

"If you've applied for a job recently, you've probably looked over that 8½ x 11" summary of your career more times than you can count-and tweaked it just as often-in pursuit of the perfect resume. But before you add another bullet point, consider this: It's not always about what you add in-the best changes you can make may lie in what you take out. The average resume is chock-full of sorely outdated, essentially meaningless phrases that take up valuable space on the page. Eliminate them, and you'll come off as a better, more substantial candidate-and your resume won't smack of that same generic, mind-numbing quality found on everyone else's. Every word-yes, every word-on that page should be working hard to highlight your talents and skills. If it's not, it shouldn't be on there. So grab a red pen, and banish these words from your resume for good."

The majority of communication is non-verbal. But how do you make sure your workplace body language is correct? How important is body language? "We're very influenced by non-verbal communication," says Joe Navarro, author of What Every Body is Saying: An ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Speed-reading People. If you look at presidential debates, the body language of the candidates is often what people recall most. "They remember their mannerisms and how they looked. In the workplace a lack of social intelligence is what keeps a lot of people from climbing the ladder," he says. Elizabeth Kuhnke, an executive coach and body language expert, says: "It is a very important part of relationship building. Establish that rapport and people will follow your lead; you control the emotional agenda."

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and KINSALE, Ireland, Nov. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The O'Sullivan Foundation today announced a grant of $5 million to the Khan Academy to accelerate the development and deployment of the non-profit's revolutionary approach to education, which has already been adopted by forward-thinking public and private schools throughout California and the United States. Khan Academy, which began as one man's effort to tutor his young cousin in math over the Internet via YouTube, has rapidly grown into a mass movement which is used by millions of students monthly, in a range of subjects from math and science to the humanities.

This site may be helpful for MBA students that need focused remedial training in math etc.